‘Father Time is undefeated’: DeSantis hits Trump on age

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knocked former President Donald Trump over his age Sunday, saying the presidency is “not a job for an 80-year-old.”

If elected, Trump would be 78 on the first day of his second term. He's approximately four years younger than President Joe Biden, whose age has been raised as an issue by Republican foes, as well as some voters in polling.

“This is not the same guy as the Trump in 2015 and '16. That Trump would show up on the debate stage, he would barnstorm,” the Republican presidential hopeful said of the former president during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Now he's wedded to the Teleprompter, he's not willing to debate, and he's running on many of the same things he promised to do in 2016 and didn't deliver,” DeSantis added.

In October, DeSantis’ campaign began tracking what it describes as Trump’s blunders with a so-called “Trump Accident Tracker,” in effort to highlight the front-runner’s gaffes, pointing to some of Trump’s missteps as the reason his “handlers won’t let him debate.”

Age has been a constant topic in the 2024 presidential election, as voters prepare for a race that looks primed to pit Trump against Biden, who will turn 81 on Monday. (DeSantis is 45.)

“Look, when you get to this point — the presidency is not a job for somebody that's pushing 80 years old, I just think that that's something that has been shown with Joe Biden,” DeSantis said Sunday. “Father Time is undefeated. Donald Trump is not exempt from any of that.”